$1.5 Million Sent in Error to Money Manager 

Credit Suisse is trying to find Joseph Galbraith, manager of Galbraith Capital Investment Management, to which the bank says it sent the money in January.

In the board game Monopoly, when the bank makes an error in your favor, the player gets to keep the money. A hedge fund manager is acting as if he has drawn that lucky card for real, a lawsuit against him contends.

Credit Suisse says it wired a total of $1.5 million in three transactions to the hedge fund’s bank account on one day in January. Two weeks later, according to its lawsuit, the bank realized it had made a mistake: At the time of the wire transfers, the hedge fund, Galbraith Capital Investment Management, was winding down operations and it had no cash left in its account with Credit Suisse.

The bank asked for its money back. It is still waiting.

The bank sued Galbraith Capital and its manager, Joseph B. Galbraith, seeking to recover the money. Credit Suisse filed a motion in a New York State court in August seeking a default judgment against Mr. Galbraith and the hedge fund.

A number of people who work for other hedge funds said that while wiring errors do occur, the amount of money at issue in the case of Mr. Galbraith is larger than normal. Some of those people also expressed surprise that Credit Suisse had made three separate wire transactions that were all in error.

Perhaps more surprising is how long it took Credit Suisse to realize it made a mistake when it wired the money to an account at the Toronto branch of the Royal Bank of Canada for a hedge fund based in Florida. It transferred the money on Jan. 13, and not until Jan. 27 did it begin contacting Mr. Galbraith and his employees to seek the return of the $1.5 million, according to court papers.

 

Source: NYT-$1.5 Million Sent in Error to Money Manager 

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